Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Diagnosis: Kawasaki Disease

We had another rough night last night. Bright Eyes was running a high fever for most of the night and was very irritable. The nurses were in and out of the room for the first several hours, and then he stayed very restless the remainder of the night.

The doctor came in this morning and explained everything we were to expect today. She has been so wonderful with us; we're very thankful for her. As she was leaving, the cardiologist came in to do an echocardiogram. Kawasaki Disease is known to be one of the leading causes of heart disease in young children. One of the sure signs of the disease is inflammation of the coronary arteries. During the ECHO the cardiologist did find that Bright Eyes had inflammation is his left coronary artery. From this and the rest of the symptoms that he has, both the cardiologist and our infectious disease doctor have determined that Bright Eyes does indeed have Kawasaki Disease.

They just began the IVIG treatment and are slowly increasing the rate that he receives it. At the moment he seems comfortable and is watching TV. The doctors have all assured us that he will more than likely have no long lasting problems from this. The IVIG will be given for 10 hours along with a very high dose of aspirin. If all goes well, we should have a completely different little boy tomorrow morning. They'll keep us for an additional 24 hours to be sure the fever does not return. If it does, we'll probably be looking at another dose of the IVIG.

Our parish priest came by this morning and anointed Bright Eyes and brought hubby and I communion. This definitely brought some peace to all of us.

Zep stayed the night at another friend's home last evening. She called and let me know that he had a tough night. This morning his teacher emailed me and said she also noticed he wasn't acting himself. She let me call him on her cell phone and I could tell he was crying. He's complaining that his stomach hurts; I'm not sure if he's just nervous about what's happening or if he's not feeling well. My mom went and checked him out and he's on the way to the hospital to visit now. Please keep him in your prayers. We forget how aware our little ones are.

UPDATE...Zep and my mom showed up, and guess what???? He's running a fever of 101.5! I may indeed lose my mind!!! So, we're trying to figure out how to deal with that.

If all goes well...the next post should be a happy one!!!! Dear Jesus, please let the next post be a happy one!!!